Remember when things were simple?
by jediknigh5
Summary: My thoughts on how the show became darker and more complex over time.


Growing up with Buffy

Buffy: Remember when things were nice and boring?

Willow: No.

The preceding exchange between Buffy and Willow was from the final season. While they may not remember Sunnydale ever being simple, I sure do. The show definitely seemed more clear cut the first season about who the good guys and the bad guys were, especially compared to later seasons. Consider the first season episode "Witch." When the Scooby gang believes that Amy is using dark magick to hurt other cheerleaders, there is some disagreement about what to do. Buffy still feels empathy for Amy, they both have strained relatonships with their respective mothers. Xander however is willing to kill Amy to save Buffy. It is eventually revealed that the witch is Amy's mother Catherine, stealing her own daughter's life in a pathetic attempt to relive her own glory days. There is no longer uncertainty. Amy may have been a scared child, Catherine was suppossed to be older and more mature. Buffy even pointedly tells Catherine "Oh grow up." Compare this to the season 4 episode "Pangs." Buffy feals guilty about fighting a Native American vengeance spirit, after all his people have sufferred. But no resolution like the one from "Witch" is reached. And Buffy must ultimately destroy this vengeance spirit. Some season 1 episode even play like After school specials with supernatural elements. The episode "Teacher's pet" features the death of one of Buffy's favorite teachers, Dr Gregory. This hurts Buffy hard, she resolves to destroy whatever monster did it. Upon learning it was a preying Mantis creature Buffy does research on the animal. She learns that bat sonar hurts a preying Mantis, even saying how Dr Gregory taught her that education helps her succeed. This episode also demonstrates a teacher trying to seduce a young teenager. And in "I robot you Jane" Buffy and Xander worry about Willow's online boyfriend. Xander fears that this "teenager" could be an older predator. He turns out to be right. In both episodes using the demon metaphor allows the show to demonstrate a very real danger to teens, older predators taking advantage of impresionable young people. Also making these predators into literal monsters allows the show to have them killed off with no moral qualms. In the next episode 'Puppet show" the possibility is raised that the murders are being committed by a human. Giles says that a demon is a thing of pure evil, but a human is more complicated. In this particular instance it turns out to be a demon who is thus slain. The natural order of "demons bad, people good" seems intact, at least for the moment. Yet in the next episode we see the show's first genuine human monster, the little league coach who beat a child for missing a play. Unlike those who preceeded the coach he is not involved in dark magick, nor is he being manipulated by a demon. He is just a horrible human. They expose him and Xander prevents him from leaving before the police arrive. Because he is an ordinary human prison can suffice for him when it couldn't hold other monsters. The only good "Monster" in season 1 would be Angel. When he is revealed to be a vampire everyone is confused. He helped them against the Master before, why. Buffy hopes to find some loophole. And we the audience see that Angel is legitimately trying to suppress his evil instincts. By the end we are willing to accept whatever explanation the show is about to give us. But the idea of a good vampire, without a soul, still seems impossible, at least for now. In later seasons Spike helps Buffy falls in love with her, and eventually fights for his soul, all before he gets his soul back. And in the season 5 episode "Family" the group learns that their newest member, Tara, is part demon. But she has become one of them, the group bands together to protect Tara, a demon, from her human family. This episode also features the claim that Tara's magical abilities are from her demonic side, but that turns out to be a lie. The whole thing is just a spin used by the males of her family to subjugate their female members, a far cry from "Witch" where witchcraft is presented as inherently evil, certainly the only witch we see in season 1 uses her powers for evil. And there is the ending of season 1, with Buffy's final battle against the big bad, the Master vampire. The Master wants nothing less than the total annihilation of all humans. Every vampire thus far, not including Angel, blindly serves the Master in his plan. All the good characters who've survived thus far band together for the first time, no less than the fate of the world rests on their victory. Even Xander and Angel are able to set aside their differences to save Buffy. Everyone plays their part, Buffy is saved, the Master is defeated, all seems right with the world. By this point every major evil character has faced their own justice, except for the anointed one but more on that later. With the world saved Buffy and her friends go to the dance together. Buffy and Angel, Giles and Jenny, there's even a little hope for those of us who were rooting for Xander and Willow to become a couple one day. As Buffy says "We saved the world, I say we party."

But seson 2 very quickly presents moral quandries not in season 1. The second episode shows a genuinly sympathetic "Monster" Daryl Epps. His life was cut tragically short, until his brother Chris used science to bring him back. Daryl is lonely, he wants a companion like him. He and Chris don't believe they're doing anything wrong by digging up bodies and creating life. Daryl even chooses not to kill Buffy, before he is tragically killed again in the fire. Then there is the Inca mummy girl, who, like Buffy, was forced to give up her life at a young age because it suppossedly was to save her people. But in order to live the normal life she was once denied Ampata must rain the life force of others. Ampata is a tragic and sympathetic character, but Buffy does her duty and destroys her. By the 7th episode, "Lie to me" it has become clear to Buffy that the world is not as black and white as she once thought. Her old friend Ford is terminally ill and wants to become a vampire to live. After Buffy slays her Ford she asks Giles to lie to her, which he does. Giles pretends that good and evil are easily distinguished from each other, good always wins, and no humans ever die. The question for the viewers at thi point becomes, why the sudden change? One should remember that "Buffy" was made more than a decade before the "Twilight" books made vampires trendy and popular. Vampire fiction certainly had its own fanbase, but an entire series about vampires had no real expectation of long term success. Also the first season of "Buffy" was only 12 episodes. It was originally suppossed to be a full season but it got cut in half. This had to make Joss Whedon nervous, perhaps he wanted to play it safe at first. Not ruffle any feathers just yet. Ths is why I believe th annointed one wasn't killed in season 1, the network might have a problem killing off a child, even a child vampire. Also I believe Joss realized that before the audience would accept all the moral and ethical dilemms, they needed to see the character as just good guys fighting bad guys for a little while. But when the show was renewed for a full second season Joss Whedon felt confident enough to take some chances. Thus Spike was introduced, Angel turned evil. As the second season progressed it became easy to look at the first season a bit nostalgically. In season 1 Angel and Jenny were on the same team, in season 2 Angel murders Jenny. Not to mention two others from the season 1 finale, Willow and Cordelia, would later become evil and try to destroy the world. In the season 1 finale the bad guys were all defeated, but in season 2 Spike and Drusilla escape, it seeming very likely that even if we never see them again, they'll still be out there killing. This alliance becomes neccessary, no such alliance was needed in season 1. In season 1 Xander and Angel work together to save Buffy. In season 2 Xander deliberately withholds information from Buffy to keep Angel from being saved, his jealousy has gotten the better of him. And whereas season 1 ended with the good guys partying, season 2 ends with Buffy forced to send her beloved Angel, the good version, to Hell.

So the question becomes, why don't Buffy and Willow remember things as being simple? Probably because they were not just casual viewers like us, they had to live through it. A war might be fascinating to study from afar, but horrifying to live through. Even in season 1 we often see characters killed off that we've known for less than an hour, but Willow has known them for months or even years. In the pilot Xander and Willow's friend Jessie is turned into a vampire and killed by Xander. After that other friends and teachers are killed, but they try not to let it affect them. But in the first season finale Willow has a bit of a breakdown after her friend Kevin is killed. We the audience have known Kevin less than thirty minutes, Willow has known him longer. And all the death and destruction has finally taken it's toll on Willow.


End file.
